What Is the Average Reading Speed?

The Short Answer: About 238 Words a Minute

The average adult reads about 238 words per minute. That's for silent reading of English nonfiction, based on Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of reading rate (the most-cited modern source on the question).

It's right in the center of a wide range. Most adults read regular texts at between 175 and 300 words per minute, and the same reader gets through a thriller and a textbook at very different speeds. Read on for what else changes that average number, and conversions of '238' into units people actually use: pages per minute, pages per hour, minutes per page.

Where '238' Comes From

The figure originally comes from a 2019 review and meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert, published in the Journal of Memory and Language. It didn't involve a new experiment though; it pooled 190 earlier studies covering 18,573 participants and reported what they collectively found. That's why 238 now turns up everywhere.

I'm repeating it here to make sure you get what that number actually covers: silent reading, in English, of nonfiction, by adults. It doesn't account for children, reading aloud, reading in a second language, or working through a textbook (or learning in general).

The Average Reading Speed in Every Unit

A words-per-minute number is hard to use, but you can convert it (assuming a standard printed page has about 250 words on it). At 250 words per page, an average of 238 words per minute gets you to ~0.95 pages per minute, or roughly 57 pages an hour.

Find the row closest to your own speed and read across. Every figure here is a pure reading rate, so real reading sessions will probably be slightly lower once you add pauses, re-reads, and stops to look something up. For what the units themselves mean and when to use each one, see PPM vs WPM explained →.

The Format Changes the Speed

Paper or screen, the reading rate barely moves. But the unit does. On an ebook, a "page" is whatever your font size adjusts it to, which makes page counts kind of unreliable. Ebook readers get a more accurate figure by tracking words or minutes instead.

Audiobooks are the real outlier, because they are not read at your speed at all. Narration is usually at around 150 words per minute at 1x, way below the average silent reader (and even below reading aloud at ~183 words per minute). That's why so many listeners push playback to 1.5x and beyond. For how the two compare on comprehension and recall instead of rate, check out Audiobooks vs Reading →.

So Does the Genre

Depending on what type of text you're reading, your speed might change again. Brysbaert's meta-analysis separates three cases:

• Fiction read silently: about 260 words per minute (range 200–320)
• Nonfiction read silently: about 238 words per minute (range 175–300)
• Reading aloud: about 183 words per minute

The rate falls as the text demands more work from you per sentence. Fiction is read fastest because the story pulls you forward and you rarely need to stop. Reading aloud is slower because your mouth is now setting the pace instead of your eyes. Anything you have to stop and verify (a proof, a contract clause, a paragraph in a language you're still learning) slows you down again, often well below these figures.

Measuring and knowing your speed across different genres enables you to plan your reads properly: measure your speed on light fiction, then apply that number to a philosophy book, and the estimate will be far off. For applying a rate to a specific title, take a look at How Long Does It Take to Read a Book →.

The Normal Range Is Wider Than the Average Suggests

The median is the exact middle of a distribution, whereas an average (the mean) is one measure of central tendency. Think of it like this: roughly half of all adult readers sit below 238 words per minute. "Below average" describes a position on this distributed scale, nothing else.

Brysbaert reports a range of 175 to 300 words per minute for silent nonfiction reading in English. Sitting outside that range in either direction is common: reading in a second language, reading something dense, reading at the end of a long day, or years of trained academic reading at the top end.

My own number is 167 WPM, below the average. This isn't just from one test I took, but the pooled result of a few hundred tracked reading sessions in the ReadingHabit web app, so I'd say it's pretty accurate.

Once you have your own number, the average becomes the least interesting figure on this page. If a low number is bothering you, Am I a Slow Reader → covers what it does and does not predict.

Your Number Beats the Average

238 words per minute is a good default when you know nothing about a reader, including yourself. Once you measure your own pace, you can find out how long a book will take you, and whether you can finish it tonight. How Fast Do You Read → gets you that number.

From there, a couple of places to take it next. For a fixed page count, see How Long Does It Take to Read 100 Pages →. For a specific book, the Reading Time Calculator turns your speed and its page count into a finish date.